Zale places CFO Mark Lenz on administrative leave

GabrielMadway

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Zale Corp.
ZLC, -0.45%
said late Friday it has placed Chief Financial Officer Mark Lens on administrative leave until further notice. George Mihalko was named acting chief administrative officer and CFO, effective immediately. The Dallas-based jewelry retailer said the decision was made after recent discussions with the company's outside auditors about Lenz's failure to timely disclose that vendor payments scheduled to be made in the last two weeks of the company's fiscal year ended July 2005 were delayed until the first week of August 2005. Zale believes the amount of the deferred payments did not exceed $8.2 million. The company said it has discussed the matter with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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